The second bang shattered the silence.
Sophia didn’t wait.
She took the hand of Marissa and pulled her away from the window, crouching low as the glass broke behind them.
“Go,” Sophia snapped, dragging her toward the hallway. “Is there a back exit?”
Marissa nodded, trembling. “Behind the kitchen. There’s a trail… into the woods.”
Another crash sounded—this time metal hitting wood. The front door had taken a hit.
Sophia moved fast, adrenaline overriding pain. “Show me.”
They ran.
Through the back-corridor, down squeaking stairs, and by a ranged-coat rack already so long unnoticed. Sophia groaned the rear door open. Moonlight fell in the forest.
It was a real trail and it was a ribbon of narrowness that had twisted and turned and walked itself with wiry brush and serpentine roots.
